With the abolition of the prosecution service about two months away, major Korean law firms are accelerating efforts to recruit personnel with police backgrounds. This is because the police role is expected to expand significantly once the prosecution loses its powers of direct investigation and supplementary investigation.
According to the legal community on the 26th, the six largest law firms by revenue last year — Lee & Ko, Kim & Chang, Shin & Kim, Yulchon, Bae, Kim & Lee, and Yoon & Yang — had secured more than 202 people with police backgrounds as of this month. Compared with 182 in February this year, this represents an increase of more than 20 in less than half a year.
Bae, Kim & Lee expanded its police-background personnel from 18 in February this year to 25 this month. Over the same period, Lee & Ko and Yulchon each added four, reaching 28 and 29, respectively. Yoon & Yang also increased its numbers from 25 to 30. Kim & Chang and Shin & Kim have maintained about 60 and about 30, respectively.
The careers of police-background figures who recently moved to law firms are also notable. Jang Woo-sung, an assistant special prosecutor (34th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute) who handled the investigation of former President Yoon Suk-yeol on the insurrection special prosecution team, joined Bae, Kim & Lee earlier this month. Jang entered the police through special recruitment as a senior superintendent in 2005 and served in key investigative posts, including head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Economic Crime Investigation Unit.
Yulchon this month recruited Han Won-hoeng (24th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute), who served as head of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency's wide-area crime investigation unit. Han was appointed to the police in 2005 and served as head of the investigation division at Seoul's Guro Police Station and head of the criminal affairs division at the Yeongdeungpo Police Station.
The move by large law firms to increase police-background personnel is interpreted as preparation for changes in the criminal justice system following the abolition of the prosecution service on October 2. Once the prosecution's direct investigation and supplementary investigation are abolished, the police are expected to exercise investigative authority and the power to conclude initial investigations in most criminal cases. As a result, some predict that demand for lawyers with extensive police investigation experience will grow even further from the early stages of a case.
"Until now, when a police investigation was inadequate, there was room for a victim's claims to be additionally reflected through the prosecution's supplementary investigation," a lawyer at a large law firm said. "As the possibility grows that a police decision not to refer a case will effectively lead to its conclusion, both suspects and victims will seek out lawyers with police investigation experience."
